When St. Lucia Nearly Missed Breakfast and Other Encouragements for Christmas
Last year St. Lucia was late to breakfast. She nearly missed it entirely.
In our family, one of our favorite traditions is celebrating St. Lucia Day. Originally a Scandinavian holiday, St. Lucia is a light bearer, bringing warmth and hope in the early morning. The oldest daughter of the family typically bears the honor of wearing a crown of light and evergreens, a white dress with a red sash and waking her family with delicious saffron buns.
We've never been a stickler for only letting our oldest embrace being St. Lucia, but as I asked my girls the past few years, busy schedules and the pang of waking early coupled with the year I almost lit their hair on fire seemed to erase some of the sheen of celebration in our house.
Last year I casually mentioned the approach of December 13th, made some muffins the night before, but planned to leave the morning void of any fanfare. But when the day arrived, it was not my oldest daughters, but my littlest who snuck into my room asking when things would be ready for her to surprise everyone! She was appalled that I hadn't woken her earlier.
St. Lucia was late for breakfast and her mother was not prepared to feed her.
I had completely neglected this little one's heart to serve her family. I had underestimated the value of carrying on a tradition that she loved. But, I wasn't about to let the moment pass. We searched her closet for her white sundress (the only white item I could think of that would fit her!) clipped some greens from our tree and tied them together with twine for her crown, and the candles for our little light bearer? Well, we placed an LED tea light on top of the plateful of muffins.
At the last minute I realized we were missing anything red and I pulled an ornament off the tree and looped it on to her crown. It was the most haphazard St. Lucia breakfast we have ever experienced, but light doesn't need us to prepare a place- light just comes. The sun faithfully rises and fills every corner of our dusty spaces, lights up hearts and dark nights and shines a beauty that we can feel and taste, and savor like saffron.
This Christmas, Sally and I have recorded two podcasts that we hope our an encouragement to you as you walk through this advent season. We are so encouraged and amazed and humbled by the thousands of you who are listening to our podcast each week! Thank you for being with us! You can listen to the most recent episodes right here or click this link to find us and subscribe through itunes HERE
